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Excavation

  • Campo Santa Maria
  • Amiternum
  • Santa Maria di Amiternum

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    Credits

    • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

      MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

      ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

      AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

    • AIAC_logo logo

    Summary (English)

    • The archaeological investigations have provided the evidence for a reconstruction of the settlement dynamics from the full imperial period until the late 13th century A.D. A building datable to the full imperial period was identified at the northern edge of the excavation area. The structure was on a north-west/south-east alignment. Only one of its perimeter walls (USM 11) was found, built in opus mixtum-reticulatum, with brick courses alternating with limestone blocks, and an offset of circa 10 cm. The wall was faced with painted plaster: black bands on red and yellow backgrounds. Soon after its construction the building was extended to the south with the addition of another wall about 70 cm wide (USM 12), built in opus mixtum incertum.

      Inside the first abandonment layer in this room (US 104), constituted by very dark material, rich in charcoal and animal bones, was a context overlying the floor containing finds datable to the full 4th century A.D. This supports the hypothesis that the 246/347 A.D. earthquake caused the room to be abandoned. Moreover, a homogeneous context dating to the end of the 4th century A.D. was found within a layer made up almost exclusively of a collapse of painted wall plaster fragments lying directly on the mortar surface. The context also contained a lamp. The layers covering the stratigraphy described above (US 70 and 40) produced pottery and coins that have been ascribed a preliminary date of between the 5th and 6th century.

      Thereafter, this area was gradually buried, without being definitively abandoned. During the 8th-9th century, wall USM 11 was replaced to the north-west by a wall (USM 19) with a foundation offset and standing structure of rough stones, while during the 10th-11th century a semicircular structure (USM 13) was built at about 2 m to the south-west.
      During the course of the 12th century, the building to which this room belonged was abandoned and destroyed by the creation of a series of rectangular ditches about 180×60 cm. Running parallel to each other and the same distance apart, they were filled by abundant accumulations of stones, brick and tile fragments and lumps of mortar.

      The removal of these accumulations revealed a number of empty pits, dug for burials but never used by the community occupying the area during the 12th-13th century.
      There was no evidence of coeval structures. However, the quantity and quality of the ceramic table and cooking wares found, the quality of the glass fragments, the number of contemporary coins and butchered animal bones, as well as clear indicators of the presence of a bell-casting pit (still to be found), attest the existence in the 12th-13th century of a large and wealthy community here.

      The discovery of numerous human bones in layers that were heavily disturbed by ploughing, and the presence of two badly disturbed inhumation burials, attests the existence of a larger cemetery in the area.
      The total absence of any pottery later than plain ware with combed a stuoia decoration or sparse glaze ware (ascribable to the 11th-13th century) confirms the site’s abandonment after this period.

    • Fabio Redi - Università degli Studi dell’Aquila, Dipartimento di Storia e Metodologie Comparate 

    Director

    Team

    • Francesca Savini - Università dell'Aquila
    • Valeria Amoretti - Università degli Studi dell’Aquila
    • Alessia De Iure - Università degli Studi dell’Aquila
    • Alessio Cordisco - Università degli Studi dell’Aquila
    • Enrico Siena - Università degli Studi dell’Aquila
    • Erika Ciammetti - Università degli Studi dell’Aquila
    • Maria Gaudieri - Università dell'Aquila
    • Vittorio Nazionale - Università dell'Aquila
    • Alfonso Forgione - Università degli Studi dell’Aquila

    Research Body

    • Università degli Studi dell'Aquila, Dipartimento di Scienze Umane

    Funding Body

    • Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio della Provincia dell’Aquila

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